[Incoming Emergency Transmission]
[Trace Location: Roppongi Station, New Tokyo]
[Com ID: Ageira Technologies Assistant Deputy Director of Operations William Betthel]
To the Desks of Ageira CEO/President Johnathon Michael, Liberty Security Forces Director Brian Copeland, and the Foreign Affairs Office,
I am not sure I have been formally introduced to any of you besides Director Michael. My name is William Betthel. I am the Assistant Director of Operations for Ageira. It is my duty to oversee transportation and exchange of equipment and products to DSE and onto Gate sites throughout Sirius. This means that at times Ageira will send their own trade ships along DSE used trade routes and send inspectors to sites. As a notion of good faith to my fellow inspectors, of whom I lead, I chose to examine both the Tau-31 Gate Site as well as the Chugoku Gate site in Hokkaido, Kusari Space. The run to Tau-31 went off without a hitch. The escorts dealt well with the few troublesome pilots along the route.
This report is of the inspection trip to the Chugoku Gate. I left Pueblo station aboard the Northern Star, it was a EL-HiL51 "Mammoth" Liberty Transport. On board was a shipment of Gate Parts heading for the Chugoku Gate site. We reached it without incident.
However, this is where the simplicity of the journey ends. Upon the end of inspection I boarded the EMPTY Northern Star and we began our journey back to the Colorado system. Before we left the Hokkaido system I requested the captain take me to the Kusari Battleship Matsumoto ,which was stationed near the gate site, so that I could pay my respects to the Admiral on board.
Upon departure from the battleship I retired to my room within the Northern Star. Halfway to Roppongi Station, near Yokohama Shipyard, I was summoned out of my room and to the bridge. It was there that I was informed that we were being harassed by an unidentified Officer of the Kusari Navy. Upon request I informed them of who I was and what I was doing within Kusari space. The Officer in question refused to identify himself and kept claiming our coms could do it for us. The coms couldn't identify the ID code he was using. The Officer proceeded to insult me by stating that Ageira employees never leave Liberty Space. Due to some delays in response and the interesting paranoia of his second, accusations of nomad infestation were thrown at me. Thoroughly insulted I still desired to end this peacefully. I encouraged the officer to meet me in space near Roppongi Station. I was greeted by the fully powered Kusari Battleship Nagato.
Upon their realization I was aboard a Mammoth, they proceeded to assume that Ageira Assistant Directors didn't travel in trade ships and accused me of being a spy. While discussing how to handle this accusation with the Captain of the Northern Star, the officer then proceeded to accuse us of being smugglers. The fact that I carried official cargo logs AND registration logs with Kusari seemed to be inconsequential to the views of this officer. While compiling the complete files, the Nagato stated in the open Communication Channel that we were to be attacked for failing to comply.
The issue was they hadn't issued any orders to us in either the private coms they were using with us or the open channel and so we were attacked unprovoked. The shields and hull were little match for the firepower of a fully operational battleship. Suffice that it provided us just enough time to get to the escape pods before the Nagato fired a final salvo destroying the Northern Star. Roppongi Station quickly tractored in our pods. I was immediately examined for any injuries. Upon release from the medical ward I compiled this message.
I would also like to report that the sudden attack of the Nagato destroyed all records both visual and audio of the incident.
I believe certain actions need to be taken in response to this. However, I leave the decisions up to the Foreign Affair Office on Manhattan and the higher ups within Ageira. This report has also been sent to the LSF to for security reasons. I hope that future messages aren't so filled with dire news.
Sincerely,
William Betthel
Ageira Technologies
Assistant Director of Operations